As the method of producing ice-candies and/or ice creams, those described in Japanese Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 have been known, both of the references employing a forming container for forming such products.
The forming container described in the Patent Document 1 has an opening formed therein, and a raw material liquid (or mix) for the ice-candy or the like can be poured into the forming container via the opening. The forming container is then cooled while the mix is held therein. As a result, the mix poured in the forming container is frozen, as such the ice-candy or the like can be produced. Thereafter, each ice-candy or the like is pulled out from the forming container via the opening.
Upon pulling out each ice-candy or the like (i.e., the mix in a frozen state), it is not permitted that the product gets out of shape, because of keeping acceptable quality. However, in the method for producing the ice-candies or the like by pouring the mix into the forming container as described in the Patent Document 1, it is not possible to make the internal shape of the forming container complicated, in order to prevent the frozen mix from getting out of shape. As such, only the ice-candies or the like having a simple shape, such as a rectangular parallelepiped shape or cylindrical shape, can be produced.
In recent years, however, needs for the ice-candies or the like having a complicated shape, such as a shape copying a face of a cartoon character, have been increased. As one means for enabling the ice-candies having such a complicated shape to be produced, for example, the forming container for producing the ice-candies as disclosed in Patent Document 2 and the like has been known.
Such a forming container B for forming the ice-candies is shown in FIG. 13. The forming container B shown in FIG. 13 includes a first mold 101 and a second mold 102. One particular face 103 or 104 of each mold 101, 102 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape is used as one to be faced in close contact with each other. One or both of such faces 103, 104 to be faced each other have a pattern portion 105 comprising a hole with a shape copying a face of a cartoon character or the like. In the face 104, a groove-like stick holding portion 107 is formed such that it connects at its one end with the pattern portion 105 and communicates at its the other end with the outside from a face 106 orthogonal to the face 104.
Now, a method of producing ice-candies, which employs such a forming container B, will be described.
On producing each ice-candy, the forming container B is prepared such that the faces 103 and 104 are to be faced in close contact with each other. In addition, a stick for the ice-candy is inserted from the outside of the forming container B through the stick holding portion 107 into the pattern portion 105. In this manner, a left wall 107a and a right wall 107b of the stick holding portion 107 serve to grasp the stick therebetween, as such the stick can be securely held by the stick holding portion 107. While this state remains, the mix is poured into the pattern portion 105 via the stick holding portion 107.
With the mix fully filled in the pattern portion 105, the forming container B is immersed in a brine tank filled with a coolant, for example, calcium chloride. Consequently, the mix filled in the pattern portion 105 is cooled together with the forming container B, and then frozen. After the freezing is completed, the faces 103, 104 are separated from each other, and the frozen mix, i.e., the ice-candy, is released from the mold 101 or 102. In this way, the ice-candy having a shape corresponding to the pattern portion 105 and holding the stick can be produced.    Patent Document 1: TOKUKAI No. 2003-116467, KOHO    Patent Document 2: TOUROKU JITSUYOUSINAN No. 3055289, KOHO
However, the mix should be expanded as the mix filled in the pattern portion 105 is cooled and frozen. Due to such expansion of the mix, it should be difficult to maintain the closely contacting state between the two faces 103 and 104. As a result, calcium chloride as the coolant may tend to penetrate into the pattern portion 105 and be incorporated into the mix, as such rendering the ice-candy an undesirably bitter taste. Otherwise, the mix may tend to flow out of the pattern portion 105 so as to form an unwanted flash after the freezing of the mix. Such phenomena inevitably deteriorate the quality of the ice-candy.
Furthermore, in the case of producing ice-candies having a complicated shape, it is quite difficult to release the frozen mix from the mold 101 or 102 with no loss of shape of the product. Namely, the ice-candy frozen in the pattern portion 105 is firmly fixed to the pattern portion 105, as such it can not be released therefrom with ease. If attempting to release it by force, the stick may be broken or otherwise the ice-candy may tend to be partly broken.
As described above, it has been difficult to produce ice-candies or the like having a complicated shape with high quality.
The present invention was made in light of the above circumstances, and therefore it is an object of this invention to provide an ice-candy forming container and an ice-candy producing method, which enable the ice-candies having a complicated shape copying a face of a cartoon character or the like to be produced with higher quality and without a loss of shape.